Under Armour All-American safety Laurence "Hootie" Jones (Monroe, La./Neville) backed off of his verbal commitment to Alabama on Wednesday afternoon. The nation’s No. 22 prospect announced his decision on Twitter and later confirmed via text message.

Jones declined an interview request, but when asked through text message if Alabama was still under consideration for him, he responded with: “Most definitely.”

The four-star athlete originally committed to Alabama on Dec. 2.

According to Maxpreps, Jones totaled 13 interceptions in his high school career.

The Crimson Tide, which has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, still has 23 verbal commitments including 16 ranked in the ESPN 300. Before his pledge to Alabama, LSU was considered to be his other favorite school.

With LSU squarely in the mix for Jones, the Tigers could be set up to make a very big run. In addition to Jones, LSU is still heavily involved with Leonard Fournette (New Orleans/Saint Augustine), the No. 1 player in the country, Speedy Noil (New Orleans/Edna Karr), Tony Brown (Beaumont, Texas/Ozen), Jamal Adams (Lewisville, Texas/Hebron) and Gerald Willis III (New Orleans/Edna Karr), all of whom are in the top 50 of the ESPN 300.

There is no time frame on when Jones would like to make his final decision.